Mineral oil-based lubricants suffer from the drawbacks of flammability, disposal problems and other hazards. Accordingly for some time there has been increased interest in developing water-based lubricants. Compositions using a mineral oil and/or synthetic lubricant dispersed in water have attained wide spread use in metal working where they are used to flood the work surface during the meta working operation. While a number of patents have issued on such compositions, water-based lubricants have not achieved wide spread use in many applications. Some of the problems with such products are set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 4,439,344 to James J. Albanese.
Therefore it is an object of the invention to provide a basic mineral oil-free aqueous composition which can be formulated into preparations useful in a wide range of lubricating applications including hot or cold rolling, processing aid, metal shaping (i.e., drilling, cutting, drawing, etc.), general lubrication, gun lubricant, etc.
It is another object of the invention to provide a substantially mineral oil-free aqueous lubricant which can be formulated for use in aerosol containers as well as pressure spraying, brushing, dipping and dispensed from hand pumped containers and droppers.
It is still another object to provide lubricant compositions that are environmentally responsible permitting disposal with a minimal of problems and costs provide efficient lubrication over a wide range of temperature and are not flammable.